Of course.
Every person would prefer his own language.
My prefer is German.

But it isn't. So I have to learn english.
My problem is to talk in English with people. Because I live in Austria and talk all day long German.
However!
We can communicate and the best way now is English.

cheers
Doc

French Guy wrote::( , I would prefer that the french language became the most popular language around the world, because I'm a french guy and it's easier for me to speak french.But I understand that english speaking is today the most wide-spread for several reasons. During the last four centuries the UK was the first colonial country, therefore the english language is now known by practically all the big nations. It's why it's a wise solution to approve the english language as the most popular.

(his teacher says)However it should be remembered that at the time that the british empire was expanding so too was the french. It was perhaps only by the luck of history(France not wanting to push for colonies in india, france pulling out of america, they made perhaps not the best choice by concentrating on Africa, and of course Napoleon losing at Waterloo) that we go to McDanalds and order a Big Mac. It could so nearly have been La Grande Mac.Donc Voila Quoi

TP wrote:Do you think that English is the best choice for an international language? Why? Why not?

I am not sure, but nowadays in many countries children start learning English early, when they go to school and then they finish their training later on. For example in my country (Vietnam), English is one of the main subject at school; however, some school have French beside English.
I think English is very common and very useful. If you think about it, there are so many words,for example to do with computer, particular the people working in big companies, they have to travel a lot and do business with other contries..., E can help you to communicate together easily. Eglish is the most widely used around the world. It has been used in all the fields of public activily. If you master it, you can go to any continent in the world, I think, I mean it easier to understand the other countries.
We are the world,

Well... here i think that English be as International Language because of it is used widely and most people able to communicate and read using English. Thus, that's maybe the one of the reasons why it happen.

But, other language also got power right? It just the matter that seems everyone agree with the English use.

To me, English also is easier to learn than the other language such as Spanish and Frances.

maybe English is not the best choice for international communication, but it does happen.
English is using worldwide now because it is the language of business and, there are so many English clubs or forums like this that help the spread of the language.

if there are more and more people around the world use another language, such as Chinese, French, Germany or, some else, in their daily lives, that will take place of English.

whether using English when communicating with others is not the point, the custom of using it is.

Nowadays people using english as a native language is still increasing but quite slowly to compare with some other language such as chinese, japanese, french. so in the future, I think english wont be the most popular language

My native language is Chinese.But I have to learn English in order to find a good job and communication with foreigners .Lots of companies require the graduates pass a English Exam named CET when he graduate from university.If you master this language and can speak it fluent,you can have more opportunities.So in my Country,many parents send their children to have a English Class when they are only 3-year-old even more younger....

i think the choice of being an international language depends on the power of the country who owns it. Let's imagine that i have my own language which is very hard to speak and understand both in the way to use and communicate, but i have a great power that made my language become yours, and how's on? you do surely have to learn and use it although you find it not easy at all. Thus ditto the English language! it is chosen to be our language 'coz it is powerful and got familiar to all for a very long time in the past that you will find it outstrategous and ridiculous when using something else as the common bridge to everyone...
By the way, English is really great to speak!

Last edited by ailamvn on Mon Nov 06, 2006 6:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

English should become the international communication languages. because the following reasons:
+ many powerful countries, which have great effects on the world's economy, are using english as their mother languague such as America, canada, british...So, people who can speak english is an great advantage.
+ English comprises of about 60% of impormation on the internet.( I am not sure about the percentage)
+ Human must choose a common language to be a intenational one. It makes our lives easier. people from diffrent countries speak the same language. We don't need to study many languages. We can save our time for other activities.

In my opinion ,instead of discussing whether english language is best or not , we should focus on the people's personalities , as we r people , whatever languages which we speak , if we have not honesty , the languages is not important

klistenes wrote:In my opinion ,instead of discussing whether english language is best or not , we should focus on the people's personalities , as we r people , whatever languages which we speak , if we have not honesty , the languages is not important

I agree, there s no need to discuss whether english is the best or not.we use it but we can talk in other languages too. the comon language is only a shorter and easier way to communicate.I myself like to study many languages not only to communicate but to enjoy and study the variety of others.English is one of them

I like to learn a lot of foreige languages, too. ^^
But, in my opinion, english is still the best choice for an international language. Why?
Firstly, it has been very popular, as others have said above.
Secondly, I suppose that English is a simple one to learn, in comparison with other language. It doesn't mean learning english is easy, but at least it is more easy than the others. (maybe this reason is a little objective)

In fact, it was not until I learned chinese did I realize english is the best language, and how I love it.

I dont think English is the best choice for international communications. So is any language in the world. It's no matter to this common language with better pronunciation or vocabulary than other one. The matter is how you find it convenient for a real commnunication. We dont forget that commnunication is only the part of a culture. And the mastering of this part does not mean you have a thorough knowledge of the culture, not to mention the communication itself has lots of different categories.
I dont think English would dominate overwhelmingly over other languages owing to its very almost worldwide commoness. Its universal role would change some day before another language (Chinese, French, Spanish ,who know ?) rising.
However,it would take a long time to see that change.
Nowadays we come across something like Singlish in Singarpore, and probaly in future there would be "Philish", "Chinish", ettc....
If so, English itself would be far more abundant than ever as in comparison to its now vocabulary of more than 1 million words.
To my humble thought, English is not quite easy compared with some of other languages. If Italy and Spains are relatively simple to learn, why one dont use them as the main international communication ?
It's evidenly that the commoness of the language is totally dependent upon reasons, even the shaping history of the language as well as other objective grouds.
The topic of English language is an immense one not limited within few pages. If we call Enlgish as the best commnunication, we equally recognize what lies behind the communication. All the roads must lead to Rome. Ok. Yet the most least tough road is almost always better than other ? The most important thing is what we obtain after finishing the "way of communication".

English as the official language in international business because of some special reasons,about 300 years ago,Britain occupied many nations and constructed settlements around the world,and now,you may find out the Indian also speak English,and it's similarly in many other countries,English is the most widely used language in the world.But now,many foreigners come to china for studying Chinese,why?
because China is more and more important in international business and English is not "the only one"as it used to be,in Britain,person with ability of Chinese is in shortage(you may read some newspapers).
what meet the development of the world is needed.

Right! Keeper
Chinese is a large country with a crowded population. And I always think it's unecessary for Chinese to learn another language. I am greatly admire Chinese who have much contributions to the human history in terms of philosophy, ancient cultures, art, religion and much more.
English, as we've just discussed, simply plays a communicative role throughout the globe, namely English itself impossibly being a highly wonderful construction. I dare not advance my subjective thoughts about the uniqueness of each worldwide language whose shaping process has been expanding in different ways.
Pictographic languages such as China, Japan, Korea, Cambodia..play their distinct roles in human history, and definitely unlikely compared with other onomatopoeia languages which equally have special characteristics.
In general, a powerful country regarding national defence, economy,population, good welfare may consider language as a bridge for associations and cooperations among countries. Perhaps it is the way to acquire the most common language for bridging distances among the nations.

most of english learners study english just because english is a global language nowadays.you can communicate with people of different countries in english and you can make more money if you can speak english at least english makes your life easier sometimes.

Once one day when english speaking countries don't have overwhelming economical power, english will not so popular anymore....

After all, it is only small portion of english learners who are really interested in the cultures of english speaking countries.

I believe all people hope their native languages are the international ones..............

hi guys,
i'm an italian student...i'm doing a thesis about this situation:english as a global language.i'm doing a questionnary on line to analise this problem.
could you answer to it?this is the link:
http://www.englishclub.com/esl-forums/v ... hp?t=44600thank you very much.
bye bye

In my opinion, English is not the best language in this world. To me, a language is good if it has some criteria:

First, it is not hard to learn.
Based on my experiences as an English teacher, most of my students say that English is not easy. They say it is because English has too much complicated grammar such as tenses, irregular verbs, uncountable nouns, articles, prepositions, and much more. Non-native English speakers must memorize them hard to get familiar with the rules.

Second, it uses polite expressions.
Sorry my English speaking friends, to me, English is not a polite language. For instance, in some countries, it's not polite to call someone older with "you". We'll call his title, like "Can uncle help Bambang please?" instead of saying "Can you help me please?".

In addition to that, in some countries, people usually call their names when they are talking to the older one. We do it in our country. Look at this expression!
"Uncle, Bambang wants to visit uncle's house tomorrow". The speaker, Bambang, uses “Bambang” instead of “I”.

Another one is, we never call someone older with his name without calling his title first. Here is the example: " Will aunt Mary bring it to Bambang?". We don’t say “Can you bring it to me?". It sound impolite to us.

Another one that's very important to us is we never call our parents with their names. I have watched some English movies. In the movies, some children call their parents with their names like "Jack , I am very busy now". It's very impolite for us to call our father with his name. It is even considered rebellious!!!

Next, I would like to give comment on Emdb's post. He said :

emdb wrote:I am a native English speaker from the U.S. I'm glad it's my mother tounge because I realize that it would be a very difficult language to learn as a second language.

You are right my friend. It's not easy to learn your language. You are lucky that you were born as a native English speaker so that you don't have to study hard to catch this language. However, on the other side, you might forget something. Guess what!Since English is an international language, lots of English speakers do not learn other languages. There is a great number of them who only speak one language. Compared with us, the majority of us can speak at least two languages namely our local languages and our national language, and of course, plus English. Some can speak four local languages and four foreign languages. So I think, in one side you are happy, but in your subconscious side you might be unhappy.Correct me if I am wrong my friend !

emdb wrote:I'm curious to know which other languages would be as useful in bussiness as English.

My friend, it depends.
If you are dealing with a Chinese man in business, of course you need Chinese skills. Nowadays, many people all over the world are learning Chinese because they are doing business with some Chinese people. As you know my friend, Chinese products are penetrating a lot of markets all over the world by offering low priced-products. So my friend, in this case you need to learn Chinese as a business language.